Conventionally, people often record a television broadcast (content) on a video tape or other storage medium to replay and watch it after the broadcast time. Mass storage media are recently popular in line with widespread use of hard disk recorders and DVD recorders as well as video tapes. Large numbers of television programs can be recorded on these mass storage media once the programs are digitized, allowing the user to replay and watch the recorded television programs when convenient to the user. This kind of mass recording of digitized content happens not only with television broadcast programs, but with content distributed over the Internet and content distributed to mobile terminals.
However, the large recorded content may contain unnecessary parts to the user. In addition, there may be some parts which are preferably replayed in a fixed order. For example, a content provider wants the user to watch advertisement content in such an order that the content produces desirable effect to the ad supplier. In contrast, the user, or content consumer, wants to watch dramas and similar content which are divided into successive episodes in a fixed order, for example.
Accordingly, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2000-261742 (Tokukai 2000-261742; published Sep. 22, 2000) discloses a receiver which, in response to user manipulation, allows the user to make replay order and repeat count settings for desired fragment data (content). Content reproduction is thus controllable for each piece of fragment data in accordance with user manipulation.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2002-230946 (Tokukai 2002-230946; published Aug. 16, 2002) discloses an information reproduction device which searches recorded information data segments (content) for those which match a search query entered by the user. The device generates order information based on which the matched information data segments will be reproduced continuously in a predetermined order specified by the user. The replay order is determined in accordance with user manipulation. The user can watch the content in the desired order.
These Tokukai 2000-261742 and 2002-230946 devices are very complex to operate because the user has to specify which reproduction method is to be applied to which part of the content (fragment data or information data segment) and instruct setting changes.
Specifically, on the Tokukai 2000-261742 receiver, the user needs to specify the fragment data to be updated and change reproduction method settings for each piece of fragment data.
On the Tokukai 2002-230946 information reproduction device, to specify the information data segment to be updated, the user needs to enter a search query. Pinpointing desired information data segments becomes increasingly difficult as the information data segments contained in the storage medium grow in number. Accordingly, the user will be required to do extra work.